Sua’s gaze slid away from the fried ogres and to the young woman holding a crystal wand, the tip of it smoldering as she wiped sweat from her forehead with a little grin.

Her voice sounded delighted, “These things can’t be any stronger than D-rank!”

A second young man laughed, stepping in to ruffle the girl’s wavy red hair affectionately, “You always undersell yourself, Seoyeon. You’re one of the strongest rookie mages this year.”

The fighter who grabbed her turned to face Sua, brows ruffled in what looked like concern. “Are you alright?”

Sua swallowed a comment about how ‘not alright’ she could have been if she didn’t notice his reckless attack early enough. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It’s a good thing we got here just in time!” The comment came from the guy who didn’t do anything, brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and his armor so shiny that Sua could not imagine he had killed a thing all day with the sword strapped to his side.

“I would have been fine regardless.” It was, perhaps, a blessing that her perpetually soft voice made Sua sound much friendlier than she felt at the moment. “Are you three part of the rescue team?”

“I suppose you could say that,” Ponytail replied with a laugh. “We were on our way to a gate when we got the notification, so we rushed over. I’m Gim Changmin, a knight. The one who pulled you out is our tank, Sang In Ho, and the cute one is Ra Seoyeon, obviously a mage~”

At least the two additional titles were implicit enough to understand. “I'm Sua.”

“What was that move you were using, unnie?” As if summoned by the thought of her, Seoyeon stepped in close, leaning in towards Sua with excitement clear in twinkling blue eyes, “It was so cool! Are you an assassin-type?”

Sua took a step back so the other girl was out of her personal space, willing to say just about anything to get her to back off. “Yeah, pretty much. Did the alert say if there were more ogres in the area?”

“No, but it’s possible there are more closer to the gate that broke,” Changmin glanced in the direction of the shanty town, mouth twisting in distaste. “But, the chances of someone still being alive in that place are practically zero.”

“We could clear the gate!” Seoyeon suggested immediately, practically bouncing in place. “Since the Association didn’t know about it earlier, it’s probably D or lower.”

A little scoff left Changmin, “Is a gate that weak really worth our effort?”

“The rewards from the clear probably won’t be much, but the Association would have to reward us.” In Ho finally spoke up, looking thoughtful as he followed the direction of Changmin’s stare.

Something about that made Changmin think twice, his fingers drumming against the handle of his sword. “Even if the cash isn’t that great… that sort of recognition could make us prospects for Nightfall down the line, and we do have teleport scrolls if things get rough.” The bright grin curled back onto his face, “Alright, let’s do it, then.”

Much like when she spoke with Daewon at the school, Sua couldn’t quite follow all of the words being used by the group, but she was itching to keep testing her skills and had no intention of being left behind by the newcomers.

As little as she bought into the competence of Changmin, she caught his gaze since he seemed to be the group’s leader, “Mind if I come with you?”

He studied her for a moment, “Sure, but you’ve gotta follow the party command, and we don’t have a spare scroll for you to use.”

“That’s fine.” Sua wouldn’t know how to use the scroll anyways.

In Ho took the lead as they started toward the village, Seoyeon falling into step with Sua. “Have you ever cleared a D-rank gate, unnie~?”

Sua glanced sidelong at the other woman, “How old are you?”

Seoyeon laughed, looking incredibly pleased with herself, “I’m nineteen, which makes me the youngest mage in Korea to be eligible for a B-rank revaluation.”

Completely ignoring the extra information, Sua turned her gaze back to the slum. “I’m nineteen too.”

Surprised crossed Seoyeon’s face before she quickly caught herself, grinning instead. “Then I’ll be more familiar, Sua-ssi. What about my question, though~?”

“I haven’t.”

“We’ve cleared two as a party, so we’ll make sure you’re safe!” Seoyeon nodded up ahead at their tank. “In Ho is C-rank like me, and Changmin is D-rank.”

Sua supposed ranks were something to brag about; she nodded absently in acknowledgment.

“For now,” Changmin butt in, puffing his chest out with a grin, “When I was evaluated, they said my potential was B-rank, I just need more combat experience.”

Sua was already regretting the decision to join them on the excursion, gaze scanning the area as she found herself hoping an ogre showed up soon. Her response was monotone, “That’s cool.”

“What rank are you?” Changmin asked.

She was spared from having to answer by the sight of a jagged crack in the air, right in the center of the slum. Sua’s brows drew down as she took it in: while the crack was certainly tall enough for an ogre to walk through, it looked no wider than her thumb, neon violet particles floating out of it and dispersing from view just a few steps away.

“First time seeing a break in-person?” Seoeyeon asked. “They always look… trippy, I guess.”

“That’s a fair description,” Sua mumbled. Unnerving would have been her word of choice given that the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up. “What’s the plan?”

“We’ll move in standard formation: tank in front, mage in back, damage dealers in the middle. Since you’re new, Sua-ssi, you’ll be the secondary dealer. Hang back and wait for openings. Everyone good?”

It was the first time Gim Changmin actually sounded like a good commander. Sua nodded her understanding along with the other two, falling into the formation he directed.

With no small amount of bewilderment, she watched as Sang In Ho stepped up to the crack and vanished into it. Following behind Changmin, Sua could feel the power of whatever caused the tear folding around her: it sucked Sua inside in a way that would’ve been impossible to fight if she wanted to, sending her hurtling through a space just as bewildering and alien as the Abyss itself before depositing her on the other side.

Three orbs of light floated from the tip of Ra Seoyeon’s wand to hover above them, illuminating the space around them.

They were in a large tunnel in some sort of cave system, the air stale as if there was no world beyond the path laid out in front of them. Such a thing seemed to be normal for the others, given that they kept walking without pause despite Sua’s impulse to stop and stare. 

“Did you fight more ogres before we arrived, Sua-ssi?” In Ho asked as they walked.

Her gaze slid over the wilted flowers and scattered bones gathered around the tunnel walls every few steps. “No, it was just the ten of them.”

“Then we should have already come across a few more in here,” he mumbled, adjusting his grip on the greatsword.

“They probably died in the break,” Changmin said, unconcerned.

In Ho frowned. “… I’ve never heard of that happening.”

“Everyone knows that things destabilize when a gate breaks: the interior decreases in size, the gatherables die, the ore dries up. Some of the mob monsters dying inside as well just makes sense.”

Seoyeon’s laugh was just as relaxed, “You really have been studying hard, oppa. Maybe you should do your reevaluation as soon as we get out of here~”

“If there was a theory section for my class, I would.” His laughter trailed off when the light illuminated a set of double doors approximately ten meters tall. Changmin drew his sword with a little grin, “Alright, the boss should be an ogre chief. In Ho-ssi: draw the aggro as soon as we go in, but avoid the bodyslam attack pattern whenever possible. Seoyeon: focus on fire attacks when its attention is occupied. Switch to crowd control spells if it starts getting unpredictable.”

“Aye aye, leader~” Seoyeon replied as In Ho nodded his understanding.

Changmin’s gaze slid over to Sua, “Your blades cut through the mob ogres so they should do damage to the chief too. Try not to throw them at the eyes, it’ll make the ogre rampage and it’s harder to counter that. Any status effects you can add will be helpful.”

Sua nodded, “Understood.”

“Then let’s go wrap this up.”

Stepping up to the door, In Ho pushed it open with a soft grunt, waving the rest of the group into the room before letting the door close behind him. He moved quickly to the front, greatsword in a defensive stance as he led them further inside.

The darkness here was unusual. 

It was made up of something entirely different than a shadow, noticeable in how Sua couldn’t get any impression of where their target might be. Even the magical orbs summoned by Seoyeon did no good, only illuminating the four of them with no impact on the room at large.

Sua curled her fingers around the daggers that slipped into her palms from the ether, eyes flicking around uselessly as she tried to ignore the uptick of her pulse.

There was something about the situation that felt like being hunted, and she was quickly learning that she despised the feeling.

Up ahead, In Ho stumbled slightly, cursing under his breath as he came to a stop. Curious, Sua poked her head around his back, brow inching up when she spotted a pile of bones, each of them suitably large enough to belong to an ogre.

“… do the chiefs usually eat the other ogres?” In Ho’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

“You can’t expect everything to be normal in a break,” Changmin replied. Despite the cavalier response, even his voice held a note of tension.

"But if the boss is different from usual, it could be…”

A sharp shudder ran down Sua’s back—a sense of danger flooding her system.

<Instincts are what keep living things alive.> The shadows had taught her that early in her training and hammered the lesson home time after time. After all, when fighting in a space that obliterated her senses, instinct was her strongest weapon.

Grabbing Seoyeon's shoulder, she dove to the ground immediately, “Everyone, duck!”